Monday, March 19, 2012

The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom

I've been exploring the act of forgiveness and this book was recommended to me on the subject. It's the story of a Dutch woman and her family who helped rescue Jews during WWII in Holland. Corrie and her family were eventually arrested and imprisoned and when she was released she embarked on helping those affected by the holocaust - both its victims and its perpetrators. I am awed that someone could forgive those who harmed them so terribly and inspired.

I marked several passages [Note to book lovers, I don't actually "mark" books - I use little sticky tapes that I can remove after I've read the book]:

p. 33 ..our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things. Don't run out ahead of Him. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need--just in time.

p. 48 Do you know what hurts so very much? It's love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill the love so that it stops hurting. But then, of course, part of us dies too. Or, we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.

p. 209 The real sin lay in thinking that any power to help and transform came from me.

p. 231 And so I discovered that is it not on our forgiveness any more then on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

At the conclusion of the book she shares her dying sister's wish, "Tell people what we have learned here [in the concentration camp]..that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still!"

In all, a thought-provoking read that I would recommend. I got in from the library so no half.com link.